William Hill has agreed to pay up to £15m to keep hold of four members of
Sportingbet’s management team in Australia following its takeover of the
online bookmaker.

Last month Sportingbet surrendered to a £485m joint bid from William Hill and Aim-quoted GVC Holdings.

William Hill’s main motivation for the deal is Sportingbet’s Australian business - a key market in which Britain’s biggest bookie currently has no representation.

The retention bonuses for Michael Sullivan, head of Sportingbet Australia, and three other key members of management are outlined in the scheme document for the takeover, distributed to shareholders on Friday.

A maximum combined bonus of £15m for all four directors will be paid in 2017 and 2018 and will be subject to performance criteria.

William Hill, which also has an option to take control of Sportingbet’s Spanish business, will undertake a review of the Australian operation following completion of the deal in mid-March.

The Australian division generated a net revenue of £87.4m in Sportingbet’s last full financial year and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £34.8m.

GVC will acquire the remainder of Sportingbet, which employs nearly 500 people, including 175 in London, and manages websites targeting punters in 24 countries.

In the document, GVC warns the integration of the Sportingbet business will “likely lead to redundancies where the businesses have overlapping functions or where this would otherwise improve efficiency”.

Andrew McIver, chief executive of Sportingbet, will leave the company with £2m, equivalent to two years' salary, car allowance, pension contributions and other benefits. Finance director Jim Wilkinson will receive a similar package worth almost £1.2m.